Periodic Puzzle
by gingerlizard91
Summary: [GSR] Will Grissom be able to figure out the strange puzzle he found in his locker? Fluffy, geeky and slightly OOC. Enjoy!


A/N: Wow. I've had thisstrange little fic sitting on my hard drive for months. So, here's the deal: I was in science one day with the Periodic Table in front of me and, being at the peak of my CSI obsession, started spelling character names with the symbols. That should be enough to know for this story. Yes, I am a geek..._but geeks should be revered!_

* * *

The note was at the very bottom of his locker when he discovered it. It was simply a note – nothing attached, not even dressed up for any sort of occasion. It was just a stark white sheet with nine names written on it. They weren't names of people he knew, though…in fact, they weren't people's names at all. And that's what puzzled Gil Grissom as he stared, confused, at the paper and read its contents thrice over.

_Sulfur. Argon. Aluminum. Oxygen. Vanadium. Einsteinium. Yttrium. Oxygen. Uranium._

Now, why had oxygen been repeated? Grissom had been a master of the periodic table in high school, a fact he had shared with many a CSI and none chose to question it. The evidence didn't lie, after all. At the age of eight, he had known the first twenty elements – symbol, atomic number, atomic mass, and the name – by heart. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium…. Yet years of practicing on periodic flash cards hadn't prepared him for this little code. Was it a code? Or perhaps something else?

Being perfectly honest with himself, Grissom hated puzzles he couldn't solve, even ones such as this one. He muttered light obscenities to himself as he put on his CSI windbreaker and shut the locker door. He knew he was going to lose crucial sleep over this. Exiting swiftly, Grissom adjusted his briefcase in his right hand and flexed his left hand anxiously. Screw the Sunday paper crossword; this was his first priority.

However, what Grissom didn't see as he was leaving was the pair of soft brown eyes boring into his back and the gap-toothed smile emerging.

* * *

Three hours and countless glasses of heavily caffeinated coffee later, the note sat on a hardcover entomology textbook in Grissom's lap and he simply couldn't focus. Every time a vehicle honked its horn outside, Grissom's eyes would shoot to the window, and then slowly pan around his living room until they finally returned to the note a few minutes later. This was downright infuriating to him. Someone was toying with his mind and he hated that. But still, he persisted.

_Now, what do all these elements have in common? _

He tried taking it from one angle. Sulfur, argon and aluminum were all in the same period, as were uranium and einsteinium. The three others were by themselves…no, that wasn't the right way to work it out.

Grissom still wasn't sure as to why oxygen had been repeated. Perhaps…maybe it was a chemical formula? A formula that required two atoms or two parts of oxygen? Was he supposed to perform this experiment? The thought came to mind easily but left hastily. Uranium was a highly radioactive element and einsteinium was man-made and extremely rare. There was one more theory, gone to the wind.

Maybe it had something to do with their atomic numbers. Grissom thought, _Maybe I'm supposed to put them in order from least to greatest. _Hoping he was on to something, Grissom grabbed a piece of scrap paper from his coffee table and scribbled the elements down in order of atomic number. As he pulled back and look at his work, it proved to be pointless. All he had now was a list of scrambled elements. Grissom sighed heavily. A break sounded like heaven right now.

Grissom drifted absentmindedly off, his head tilting back and forth dangerously as though he was going to faint. He looked down at the sheet again, and something in his mind made a useless note that the first letter of sulfur, the first two letters of argon and the first letter of aluminum spelled out "Sara". He chuckled at the coincidence. What were the odds that the elemental symbols of those first three spelled out –

Like a slap in the face, it hit Grissom and he sat completely upright. He was delving too deep into the meaning of these elements; the answer was right in front of him. Feverishly, he wrote down the symbol for each element – in order this time. What he came to was:

S Ar Al O V Es Y O U

His eyes widening, Grissom cut words off at the appropriate places and raised an eyebrow when he saw the outcome.

_Sara loves you. _

He cocked his head and smiled. The beginning of shift just wouldn't come fast enough.

* * *

Sara was deep in concentration in the layout room, looking over evidence in her hit-and-run case, when Grissom came in, a look of pure achievement on his face. Sara's head turned and he went into his planned routine.

"You can spell three of our employees' names using symbols of the periodic table of elements alone. Bobby's name, our resident ballistics expert, consisted of boron, oxygen and yttrium. Brass' last name is made up of bromine, arsenic and sulfur."

Sara fought back a smile but listened contently as Grissom continued.

"Nick's name consists of nitrogen, iodine, carbon and potassium. I could only get halfway through Catherine and Warrick's names. Your name – that's an entirely different story."

Sara bit her lip before saying, "And why would you be telling me this?"

He pursed his lips and revealed the note he'd found in his locker. Sara examined it was mock-curiosity and remarked, "Who's this from? Your secret admirer?"

Grissom shrugged and looked her in the eye. "Actually…I think it is."

The smile was forming on her face unhidden.

"I just don't think she's so secretive anymore," Grissom finished.

She couldn't mask the smile anymore. "Ah, I…thought you'd like a little challenge. You know – something to get your mind off work."

"Sara, my sweet," Grissom said, his tone dramatic and his hand moving towards her shoulder, "my mind has already been distracted enough from work by just one person. She just happens to be a little more than a good friend of mine and a brilliant woman to boot, so I guess all I can say is… Piece together _that_ puzzle."

END

* * *

A/N: Told you it was geeky. 


End file.
